Monday, October 4, 2010
Big Bend Motor Inn & RV Campground, Study Butte, TX - Mar 14-20
Since there were dire warnings about how full the campgrounds in Big Bend NP would be during Spring Break, Pat & Dennis and we made reservations at this private cg just outside the west entrance to the NP. The town's name is pronounced Stoody Beaut, named for Will Study, manager of the Big Bend Cinnabar mine & founder of the town in the early 1900s.
The cg is conveniently located, with all the basics, and is reportedly the "best around". The electric amps are pretty low, which means we can't run our air conditioner (believe it or not, we need it in March down here!). This is as isolated as we have been on our travels. Our cell phone doesn't work at all.
In the first 3 days, we visited each of the 3 major areas of the park. The first day we went to the Chisos Basin area & hiked the Window View trail and the Basin Loop trail. Both had lovely impressive vistas of the Chisos Mountains. Big Bend is the only NP which contains a complete mountain range. From the notch which is called The Window you can see the grandeur of the distant terrain of mesas, buttes and spires of all shapes, sizes & colors.
Our second outing was to the Santa Elena Canyon area of the park, which is on the eastern side. We did several short hikes culminating in a hike into the canyon, which offered beautiful views of the Rio Grande. The canyon walls rise over 1500 feet on each side, almost straight up.
The third part of the park is Rio Grande Village, on the west side. We started the day with an early birding walk, finding 4 new species -- Common Black-Hawk, Black-tailed Gnatcatcher, Black Phoebe and Ash-throated Flycatcher. The Common Black-Hawks are nesting near the camping area. We took a battered rowboat ride across to the tiny village of Boquillas del Carmen, Mexico, where we ate a delicious lunch and drank large bottles of old-style Coke. Back in the US we hiked into Boquillas Canyon. We could not get as deep into this canyon, but further down the walls rise higher than 2600 feet.
The 4th day we went to the ghost town of Terlingua, which was bustling town of 2000 people in the early 1900s. Today's tourist industry is slowly bringing the town back to life, with interesting shops, restaurants & guide services. With temps already in the 90s, we shudder to think of how hot it is here in the summers.
We spent a day with Pat & Dennis, driving the scenic Lajitas-to-Presidio road, which goes along the Rio Grande for about 50 miles. Lajitas is a town that the owner is trying to turn into a major tourist resort -- so far unsuccessfully, it would seem. Presidio, which has a companion city, Ojinaga, across the border, was more interesting but did not have the charm of the Terlingua/Study Butte area. It did have an attractive RV park, which might be of interest in future winters.
Outside Presidio, we visited the Fort Leaton State Historic Park, which was one of the earliest forts in the US. While in Lajitas, we learned a bit more about the only radio station available: KYOT (pronounced "coyote"). It is an unlicensed station, which operates illegally with its own standards, which include no commercials; no music containing violence, promoting any specific religion, or having objectionable language. 
It runs 24 hours a day and consists of whatever CDs are currently in a large 200-disk player in some mystery location.
Another day we attended a NPS program on desert plants and hiked in an area called Grapevine Hills, which had some very interesting rock formations and beautiful views.
The cats are shedding like mad now that we are back in a hot, dry climate. We like it much better less humid, but I'm not sure about the cats. They still don't quite understand this way of life.
# posted by Doug and Willie @ 5:44 PM 
